Sacramento County
Biographies
THOMAS EDWARD COYLE
THOMAS EDWARD COYLE.--It is fortunate
for California, considering the
important part played in her history by the pioneering railroads, that such a
man as Thomas Edward Coyle, widely known as the progressive superintendent of
the Western division of the Western Pacific Railroad, is actively identified
with the development of the great Pacific commonwealth. He was born at Port Allegany, Pa.,
on October 17, 1875, the son of Owen Richard and Mary (Kelly) Coyle, worthy
settlers who were natives of the staid old Keystone
State. Mr. Coyle has been gathered to his fathers,
having rounded out a very useful and an honorable career; and Mrs. Coyle
continued to live at Tacoma, Wash.,
the object of tender devotion on the part of a devoted circle of friends,
passing away there in 1922, at the age of seventy-three.
Thomas
Edward Coyle was fortunate in attending both the grammar and the high school,
and then he went to work on the railroad as a telegraph operator, and then as a
station agent. In time, he was promoted
to be train despatcher, and then he was made chief despatcher, and next he became assistant superintendent on
the Northern Pacific Railroad; and from the Northern Pacific he came to the
western division of the Western Pacific.
In 1920, he was appointed superintendent, with headquarters at Sacramento.
Mr.
Coyle is a typical railroad man, and as such takes a very live interest in both
the historic past and the promising future of Sacramento,
and never neglects an opportunity to cooperate in the building up of both town
and county. He belongs to the
Progressive Business Men’s Club and also to the Y. M. C. A. Under the banners of the Republican party, but with broad sympathies for non-partisan movements
for local aims, he seeks to support the best men and the best measures.
On
May 22, 1898, at Ellensburg, Wash.,
Mr. Coyle was married to Miss Alice Cunningham, a native daughter of San
Francisco, who shares with him the social life of the
Masonic and Elks orders, to which he belongs.
Transcribed
by Priscilla Delventhal.
Source: Reed, G. Walter, History
of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches, Pages 784-787.
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 P. J. Delventhal.